International Symposium

Development of Academic Language in Multilingual
Environments- Old and New Issues in Immersion Education -Date and Time: March 24, 2011 (Thursday) 1:00PM – 6:00PM
Place: Kyoritsu Women’s University, 3 gokan building, room 610 (please see theinformation on the last page) 3-27 Jimbocho Kanda, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo
With the advancement in globalization, children growing up in multilingual environments arealso increasing in Japan. In this symposium, we are organizing lectures on “Development ofacademic language in multilingual environments” by researchers and educators who areactive in the front lines of immersion education. In addition, there is an increasing tendency ofchildren with developmental disorders who grow up in multilingual environments, thus needs
towards support and research are increasing. We would like to make this symposium an
opportunity to exchange opinions on language development and difficulty of children in theseenvironments. We look forward to your participation.
Program
13:00-13:10

Introduction – Dr. Manabu Oi (Professor, Kanazawa University)

13:10-14:40

Lecture 1 – Dr. Kazuko Nakajima (Professor Emerita, University of Toronto)

14:40-15:40

Lecture 2 – Dr. Atsuko Koishi (Professor, Keio University)

15:40-16:00

16:00-17:30

BreakLecture 3 – Dr. Marion Friebus-Flaman(Principal, Dooley Elementary School)

17:30-17:50

Q&A

17:50-18:00

Closing – Dr. Manabu Oi

Application due date:

March 19 (Saturday)

Open to first 200 applicants

How to apply

Host: Research Center for Child Mental Development,

Fee for handouts/materials: 2000 Yen (1000Yen for university

Kanazawa University

students and graduate students)

Co-host:Please apply via e-mail. Please send an e-mail with the-Center for Research in International Education, Tokyo

following: 1) Your name 2) Affiliation 3) “I would like toGakugei University

participate-RISTEX Project “Autism friendly society: Exploring theinDevelopment

ofacademiclanguage

inmultilingual environments” to the address below.

balance between symbiosis and treatment”

bilingualdevelopment@gmail.com-Research Association for Multilingual Development,

We will send a confirmation e-mail upon receiving your e-mail.

Education and Intervention*The above feel is for those who register in advance. The fee

Support: Kyoritsu Women’s University Development

for those who attend without registering is 3000 Yen.

Consultation and Support Center
Organizers: Manabu Oi (Kanazawa University)
Keiko Gondo (Kyoritsu Women’s University)
Tomoko Matsui (Tokyo Gakugei University)

Symposium lecture overview
Lecture 1 “Language Minority Students and Immersion Education”
Prof. Kazuko Nakajima
Professor Emerita, University of Toronto; Founding President & President Emerita ofCanadian Association for Japanese Language Education in Canada; Currently
President of Mother Tongue, Heritage Language, and Bilingual Education ((MHB)
Research Association in Japan
Immersion education which started in Canada in 1960s is a school environment in which over50% of the curriculum is delivered in the child’s second or third language. With achievements ofover 40 years as an effective method of nurturing additive bilinguals, immersion education is aform of bilingual education currently used in various parts of the world. Would immersion
education be an effective school environment that improves academic language proficiency ofminority language children such as non-Japanese students in Japan as well?

Since thecurriculum is delivered in L2 (Japanese) at school, it would appear to be an immersion
environment where the child is being “immersed” in Japanese. However, there is no curriculumin L1 (mother tongue) thus there is a risk that the child’s mother tongue might regress and be lost,
and the child’s academic language in the mother tongue might not develop. Acquisition ofacademic language proficiency in Japanese also tends to be delayed because of this, and as aresult, the child becomes a subtractive bilingual (the mother tongue is abandoned and one
becomes a monolingual in the local language) in many cases. As ways to nurture academic
language proficiency in one’s mother tongue as well as in the societal language among minority
language students, the presenter will take the examples of heritage language immersion
programs in Canada (3 provinces in Central Canada), two-way immersion programs in theUnited States, and weekend immersion programs called Hoshuu Jugyookoo for educating
Japanese school children living abroad.

Lecture 2: ATSUKO KOISHI, Bilingual Education of the Deaf Children
Case Study: Ernest C. Drury School, Canada
For the deaf children, the language they can acquire and use by fully utilizing their perceptual
capacities is the sign language. In Japan, that would be the Japanese Sign Language, whereas
in the English speaking part of Canada, ASL (American Sign Language) is used. Linguistically,
sign languages are regarded as natural languages with unique grammatical structures that differ
from aural Japanese or aural English. That makes the deaf people that use sign languages thelinguistic minority in the region they reside.

The theme of my presentation is to examine,through the practice of Ernest C. Drury School in Ontario, Canada, how to create the educational
environment for such children. In Japan, the oral method still remains as the mainstream of theeducation for the deaf children and the linguistic environment for sign language is not yet up tothe mark. In contrast, at Drury, they practice bilingual education, aiming at having the studentsmaster ASL as their first language while also working on having them master written English as
their second language. Needless to say, learning and mastering two languages, one based on
visual mode and the other, on auditory mode, is no easy task. I will share with you the video of
the actual teaching/learning scenes at Drury. I would especially like to draw your attention to (1)the bilingual education geared to respective development levels of the kindergarten andelementary school children, (2) cultivation of linguistic conscience by using ASL-phabet(grapheme), and (3) the English language education using MVL (Manipulative Visual Language).

Lecture 3: “Educating Bilingual Students with Special Needs in a
Japanese-English Dual Language Program”
Marion Friebus-Flaman, Ph.D.
Thomas Dooley Elementary School
Dooley Elementary School is a K-6 public school that houses a Japanese-English two-way
immersion program. This program is designed to develop students who are bilingual, bi-literateand bicultural, with approximately half of the students entering Kindergarten as native speakersof English and half of the students entering Kindergarten as native speakers of Japanese. FromKindergarten through 6th grade, half of the curriculum is delivered in Japanese and half in English.
Over 200 students participate in this program. Of these students, there are a handful of students
who have been diagnosed with cognitive disabilities or ASD/PDD. The presenter will give anoverview of the two-way immersion program; then focus specifically on the instructional
strategies and supports employed in educating Japanese-English bilingual students who havethese special needs.

The roles and responsibilities of classroom teachers, instructionalassistants, special education resource teachers, and other related services staff will bepresented as well as parents’ roles and communication between home and school. Video clips ofinstruction and samples of student work will also be presented.

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Access to Kyoritsu Women’s University (3 gokan building, 3-27 Jimbocho Kanda,Chiyoda-ku Tokyo)

Website: http://www.kyoritsu-wu.ac.jp/access/kanda/campus.html
・5 minute walk from “Jimbocho” station, exit A1 (Tokyo Metro Hanzomon line, Toei SubwayMita line and Shinjuku line)
・5 minute walk from “Kudanshita” station, exit 6 (Tokyo Metro Tozai line and Hanzomon line,Toei Subway Shinjuku line)